This invention relates to emergency location signaling devices of the type disclosed in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,638, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, with respect to which the present invention is an improvement.
Location marking devices that are automatically released, launched and triggered into operation are well known as shown in my prior U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,253,573 and 3,332,390. The automatic release of a marker buoy anchored to a submerged craft, and from which an aerial balloon is launched, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,470,783 to Mead. Also known are radio and light signaling components suspended from an inflated balloon anchored by a cable to its storage enclosure, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,923,917 to McPherson. Other location signaling devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,821,725 and 4,102,296.
Such prior art location signaling arrangements often require special craft or vehicle mounting facilities and/or impact responsive release means that create installation problems and introduce a certain degree of unreliability such as unintended trigger. It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide an improved, portable type of location signaling unit that may be carried by any type of vehicle or craft and triggered into operation either manually or automatically and providing visual and or aural signals which are suspended by but separate from the balloon.